I've done crossfit wod on and off for several years now. I've also been watching the crossfit games for several years to and I am sure the athletes do a lot more than just the workout of the day. How do you add crossfit to your workout routine? Do you do the workout of the day and possibly add more? I'm wondering how these guys train to get in that kind of shape. I know they are most likely not natural and have youth on their side.

Well, the simple answer is to get a good coach and have him program for you.

The truth of the matter is that this is a very loaded question. People are dedicating their lives to understand the impact of increased training volume and the most optimal way to add more in and recover from it.

Some may not be natural, and some have youth on their side (there's some guys in their 30's, quite a few I believe), but they have also dedicated their entire lives to making the games. 24/7/365, every decision they make revolves around training and recovery. The ones making the games usually have part time jobs or are maybe some students and have many hours a day to train/recover. Sure there are exceptions to the rule, but that is the generally the landscape for games athletes.

That being said, there is plenty of free programed sites that have a roadmap to excelling in the open for you. My favorite is www.comptrain.com. I think that is a little bit more "classic crossfit" that doesn't overload volume, can still be done in 1 session (albeit a long one), and is simple to understand. Invictus is maybe a little bit more "thought out" (I don't necessarily believe that, but it sorta seems it), it's a little more complicated, and it's a little bit more periodized. I think it's a bit more focused on movement which is good, but I think sometimes it's just too much to hit it all with intensity. That being said, CJ Martins athletes have crushed regionals this year, so maybe I'm wrong. Every games athlete is selling their program it seems these days, so there's a lot to choose from.

That being said, Mechanics, Consistency, Intensity, Volume. In that order, my friend, in that order, otherwise injury is right around the corner.

There are certainly exceptions, but people who compete at a very high level in the sport of CrossFit generally have programs with several attributes:

1) Heavy strength component. Have you be damn strong to be competitive today.
2) Lots of skill work on olympic lifts and misc CrossFit skills.
3) Usually more than one session a day. Some people will do strength work in one session and hard conditioning in another. Other people will do an easy cardio session in the morning, then a weight room afternoon session, then CrossFit style work in the evening. I don't think many high level people are still getting by with 1 session a day. You look at someone like Froning and the work volume is crazy.
4) Periodization. Top athletes in all sports differentiate their training into off-season and on season of some kind. Off-season for CrossFit athletes is a great time to work on things like an aerobic base and more strength. As the real competition gets closer then the high intensity conditioning is ramped up.

Crossfit Invictus and Outlaw Crossfit in the past have been very competitive non-specific programming that you could look at to see examples of some of these factors in practice. Haven't been to their websites lately to see what they are still throwing up.